74-640: The Alexander S. Onassis Foundation ( Greek : Κοινωφελές Ίδρυμα Αλέξανδρος Σ. Ωνάσης ), commonly known as Onassis Foundation ( Greek : Ίδρυμα Ωνάση ) is a public benefit foundation based in Vaduz , Liechtenstein . It was established by Aristotle Onassis in his will in Liechtenstein in order to honor the memory of his son Alexander , who died at age 24 in an airplane crash in 1973. Aristotle Onassis died in 1975, and had directed in his will that half of his estate should be transferred upon his own death to
148-577: A Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered
222-484: A 118-year-old library of archeology with rare ancient art, science and philosophy books and publications. The library has some 20,000 volumes, including rare editions dating to the 17th century. The bibliography covers archaeology, history, arts, ancient religions and ancient Greek philosophy , as well as Ancient Greek and Latin literature. Of particular value are the diaries of various excavations including those of Heinrich Schliemann . The collection of archaeology books
296-737: A 6th-century BC marble statue of a woman, which were returned as stolen artifacts to Greece in 2007 by the Getty Museum in California , after a 10-year-long legal dispute between the Getty Center and the Greek Government . One year earlier, the Los Angeles foundation agreed to return a 4th-century BC tombstone from near Greek Thebes and a 6th-century BC votive relief from the island of Thassos . The museum houses
370-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,
444-573: A child, a painted limestone head of a goddess and the famous warrior's vase dating from the 12th century. The Egyptian collection dates back to the last twenty years of the 19th century. Notable is the donation of the Egyptian government which in 1893 offered nine mummies of the era of the Pharaohs from Bab el-Gasus . However, the Egyptian collection is mainly by two donors, Ioannis Dimitriou (in 1880) and of Alexandros Rostovic (in 1904). In total
518-508: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on
592-554: A foundation to be established in his son's name. In 1975, the executors of the estate accordingly established a pair of foundations, incorporated in Vaduz , Liechtenstein : the Business Foundation, which acts as a holding company for the underlying business interests, and the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, which is the sole beneficiary of the Business Foundation. The executors and original members of
666-497: A large amount for the completion of the museum. The initial name for the museum was The Central Museum . It was renamed to its current name in 1881 by Prime Minister of Greece Charilaos Trikoupis . In 1887 the important archaeologist Valerios Stais became the museum's curator. During World War II the museum was closed and the antiquities were sealed in special protective boxes and buried, in order to avoid their destruction and looting. In 1945 exhibits were again displayed under
740-590: A lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and
814-400: A limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in the nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by
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#1732780409983888-459: A mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and a fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes ,
962-468: A series of educational programs for children, adolescents, schools, adults, and teachers, including creative music courses, digital applications, seminars, mixed dance lessons for people with and without disabilities etc. Moreover, the Foundation has been organizing nationwide workshops and various educational activities for children with either motor difficulties or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) . Also
1036-460: A state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in the early 19th century that
1110-916: A subterranean expansion at the front of the museum. In 2023, the Greek government approved plans for a 20,000 square metre underground extension to the museum. The extension is expected to be completed by 2028 and will also feature a rooftop garden. The museum's collections are organised in sections: The prehistoric collection displays objects from the Neolithic era (6800–3000 BC), Early and Mid- Bronze Age (3000–2000 BC and 2000 to 1700 BC respectively), objects classified as Cycladic and Mycenaean art. There are ceramic finds from various important Neolithic sites such as Dimini and Sesclo from middle Helladic ceramics from Boeotia , Attica and Phthiotis . Some objects from Heinrich Schliemann excavations in Troy are also on display. Key highlights of
1184-423: Is a bronze statue of the princess-priestess Takushit , dating to around 670 BC. Standing 70 cm high and wearing a gown covered in hieroglyphs, the statue was found south of Alexandria in 1880. The Stathatos collection is named for the donors and major Greek benefactors Antonis and Eleni Stathatos. The collection features about 1000 objects, mainly jewels as well as metal objects, vases, and pottery from
1258-707: Is in the Olympic Tower on Fifth Avenue, which was built in 1976 and combines offices, shops and luxury apartments. It is also home to the Onassis Cultural Center, which has been open intermittently for exhibits and other programming, but as of 2018 is no longer regularly open to the public. From 2020 to 2022, the Onassis USA also maintained operations through its branch in Los Angeles (Onassis LA, aka OLA House) under Paul Holdengräber , mainly during COVID-19 pandemic . The Foundation undertook
1332-683: Is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek
1406-651: Is on the Patission Street adjacent to the historical building of the Athens Polytechnic university . The first national archaeological museum in Greece was established by the governor of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias in Aigina in 1829. Subsequently, the archaeological collection was relocated to a number of exhibition places until 1858, when an international architectural competition was announced for
1480-689: Is represented by stone, bronze and ceramic pots, figurines, ivory, glass and faience objects, golden seals and rings from the vaulted tombs in Mycenae and other locations in the Peloponnese ( Tiryns and Dendra in Argolis , Pylos in Messinia and Vaphio in Lakonia ). Of great interest are the two golden cups from Vafeio showing a scene of the capture of a bull. Mycenean collection includes also
1554-1076: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern National Archaeological Museum, Athens The National Archaeological Museum ( Greek : Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο , romanized : Ethnikó Archaiologikó Mouseío ) in Athens houses some of
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#17327804099831628-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,
1702-537: Is the richest of its kind in Greece . The Library has been recently renovated with funds from the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation . Its renovation was completed on 26 May 2008 and is now named after Alexander Onassis . The museum is accessible by the Athens metro . The nearest station is Victoria Station (Line 1) and it is within a 5-minute walk from the museum. The museum houses a gift shop with artifact replicas and
1776-579: Is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near the Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in
1850-562: The British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of the membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in
1924-657: The European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute the objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek
1998-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as
2072-705: The Temple of Aphaea in Aegina , the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia in Sparta , Pylos , Thebes , Athens, Vari Cave , the Antikythera wreck and from various other places in Greece . The museum houses the archaic terracota statuette daidala that inspired the designers of the 2004 Athens Olympics maskots Athena and Phevos . Two of the newest exhibits of the museum include a 4th-century BC golden funerary wreath and
2146-652: The United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout the Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to
2220-468: The genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in the ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in
2294-417: The syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow the noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However,
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2368-566: The 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as
2442-466: The Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, from the time of its establishment to the present, are funded exclusively by the profits of the Business Foundation, which engages mainly in shipping and real estate investments. The Foundation is active in the fields of health, education, and culture, supporting a continuous connection with Greece and contemporary Greek culture . The Foundation aims at promoting Greek culture and civilization throughout
2516-535: The Board of Directors, appointed in 1975 by Aristotle Onassis in his will, were his executives and business associates. Among them Nikos Kokkinis , Michael Dologlou , Stelios Papadimitriou , Paul Ioannidis , Apostolos Zambelas , Creon Brown , etc. Through time, other persons were added, such as Theodoros Gavriilidis . The public benefit foundation is based in Vaduz. Aristotle's daughter, Christina Onassis , served as
2590-922: The Foundation donated the Onassio Cardiac Surgery Centre (OCSC) to Greece in 1992. Close to it, the Onassis National Transplant Centre (ONTC), is under construction and is expected to be delivered to the Greek State c. 2025. In 2018, Onassis Foundation reconstructed the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center at the Andreas Syngros Hospital in Athens. Moreover, the Foundation provided financial support to organizations such as ELPIDA and
2664-636: The Foundation established international awards, which were handed out to individuals and organizations in the fields of culture, social achievement and the environment. Since 2008 the awards were redesigned and expanded as the Onassis International Prize for Shipping, Trade, and Finance in partnership with Bayes Business School , University of London , and the City of London. Since 2010, the Onassis Foundation has implemented
2738-430: The Foundation supports educational institutions (like universities, colleges and schools) in about 40 countries. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ ) is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It
2812-544: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit
2886-549: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in
2960-598: The Hellenic Society for the Protection and Rehabilitation of Disabled Children (ELEPAP). In 2020, it implemented donations related to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Greece . In 1978, the Onassis Foundation launched scholarships for studies in Greece and abroad. Nowadays emphasis is given on fields such as robotics , artificial intelligence , biotechnology , and bio-innovation. The same year (1978)
3034-1038: The Middle Bronze Age to post- Byzantine era. Features of special note are the Hellenistic period golden jewels from Karpenissi and Thessaly . Some of the ancient artists whose work is presented in the museum are Myron , Scopas , Euthymides , Lydos , Agoracritus , Agasias , Pan Painter , Wedding Painter , Meleager Painter , Cimon of Cleonae , Nessos Painter , Damophon , Aison (vase painter) , Analatos Painter , Polygnotos (vase painter) , Hermonax . Collections include sculpture work, Loutrophoros , amphora , Hydria , Skyphos , Krater , Pelike , and lekythos vessels, Stele , frescoes , jewellery, weapons, tools, coins, toys and other ancient items. Artifacts derive from archaeological excavations in Santorini , Mycenae , Tiryns , Dodona , Vaphio , Rhamnous , Lycosura , Aegean islands , Delos ,
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3108-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),
3182-479: The arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During the older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from
3256-442: The collection includes more than 6000 artefacts, 1100 of which are available presently for the public. The collection is considered to be one of the best collections of Egyptian art in the world. The exhibition features rare statues, tools, jewels, mummies, a wooden body tag for a mummy, a stunning bronze statue of a princess, intact bird eggs and a 3000-year-old loaf of bread with a bite-sized chunk missing. The exhibition centrepiece
3330-505: The collections include: Cycladic collection features the famous marble figurines from the Aegean islands of Delos and Keros including the Lutist . These mysterious human representations, which resemble modern art and inspired many artists such as Henry Moore , came from the 3rd millennium BC old cemeteries of Aegean islands along with bronze tools and containers. Mycenean civilization
3404-796: The country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine ,
3478-487: The damage caused by the 1999 earthquake . The Minoan frescoes rooms opened to the public in 2005. In May 2008 the Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis inaugurated the much anticipated collection of Egyptian antiquities and the collection of Eleni and Antonis Stathatos. In 2020, there was renewed discussion regarding the need to further expand the museum to adjacent areas. A new plan was made for
3552-441: The dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before
3626-482: The direction of Christos Karouzos and Semni Karouzou . The south wing of the museum houses the Epigraphic Museum with the richest collection of inscriptions in the world. The inscriptions museum expanded between 1953 and 1960 with the architectural designs of Patroklos Karantinos . In 2023, the Greek government approved plans for a 20,000 square metres (220,000 sq ft) underground extension to
3700-528: The earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of the Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of
3774-885: The establishment of the Onassis Library for Hellenic and Roman Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the renovation and equipment of the libraries of the National Archaeological Museum , the Byzantine & Christian Museum and the Benaki Museum in Athens , the architectural preservation and restoration of sites and buildings around the world (such as C. P. Cavafy ’s House in Alexandria , Egypt ), as well as other endeavors centered on arts and culture, including projects in
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#17327804099833848-412: The extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English
3922-593: The first president of the foundation until her death in 1988. She was succeeded by Stelios Papadimitriou, Aristotle Onassis' lawyer, who died in 2005. Anthony S. Papadimitriou , the latter's son, serves as the current president and chair of the Board of Directors. The foundation is one of the largest in Europe , using its assets to create scholarship and prize programs, build the $ 75 million Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center in Athens (designed by London-based hospital architect Llewelyn Davies), endow Greek studies chairs at universities, and support other projects. All activities of
3996-421: The front of the museum there is a large neo-classic design garden which is decorated with sculptures. The building has undergone many expansions. Most important were the construction of a new east wing in the early 20th century based on the plans of Anastasios Metaxas and the construction of a two-storeyed building, designed by George Nomikos , during 1932–1939. These expansions were necessary to accommodate
4070-449: The language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to the modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows
4144-414: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write
4218-458: The location and the architectural design of the new museum. The current location was proposed and the construction of the museum's building began in 1866 and was completed in 1889 using funds from the Greek Government , the Greek Archaeological Society and the society of Mycenae . Major benefactors were Eleni Tositsa who donated the land for the building of the museum, and Demetrios and Nikolaos Vernardakis from Saint Petersburg who donated
4292-524: The magnificent 19th-century finds of Heinrich Schliemann in Mycenae from the Grave Circle A and the earlier Grave Circle B . Most notable are the golden funerary masks which covered the faces of deceased Mycenean nobles. Among them, the most famous is the one that was named erroneously as the mask of Agamemnon . There are also finds from the citadel of Mycenae including relief stelae, golden containers, glass, alabaster and amber tools and jewels. Other features include an ivory carving of two goddesses with
4366-400: The many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is
4440-465: The morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks the infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of
4514-399: The most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity . It is considered one of the greatest museums in the world and contains the richest collection of Greek Antiquity artifacts worldwide. It is situated in the Exarcheia area in central Athens between Epirus Street, Bouboulinas Street and Tositsas Street while its entrance
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#17327804099834588-452: The museum. The extension is expected to be completed by 2028 and will also feature a rooftop garden. The museum has an imposing neo-classical design which was very popular in Europe at the time and is in accordance with the classical style artifacts that it houses. The initial plan was conceived by the architect Ludwig Lange and it was later modified by Panagis Kalkos who was the main architect, Armodios Vlachos and Ernst Ziller . At
4662-410: The public space, like open-air exhibitions (at first in Athens and later in Ioannina ), creation or restoration of cultural spaces and a series of large-scale artworks by Greek artists mainly in Athens Metropolitan Area . Also, in 2020 Onassis Foundation undertook the costs of the new lighting design and construction and also other works in the Acropolis archaelogical site . In the fields of health,
4736-417: The rapidly growing collection of artifacts. The most recent refurbishment of the museum took more than 1.5 years to complete, during which the museum remained completely closed. It reopened in July 2004, in time for the Athens Olympics and it included an aesthetic and technical upgrade of the building, installation of a modern air-conditioning system, reorganisation of the museum's collection and repair of
4810-417: The regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of
4884-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of
4958-554: The world and in Greece. The first international affiliate Onassis Foundation, now known as OnassisUSA, was established in New York City to disseminate information about Hellenic civilization throughout North and South America. The Onassis Cultural Center (now Onassis Stegi), Foundation's venue, was built in Athens in 2004 and opened in December 2010. Onassis Stegi's artistic programming addresses issues of democracy, social and environmental justice, racial and gender equality, and LGBTI+ rights . The Foundation's US presence (Onassis USA)
5032-515: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or
5106-442: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe
5180-428: Was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and
5254-430: Was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in
5328-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect
5402-637: Was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to
5476-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage
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